Space shuttle Endeavour flyover of Bay Area set for an hour later than planned

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The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) modified 747 aircraft and the space shuttle Endeavour are parked at the Dryden Flight Research Center inside Edwards Air Force Base in California, September 20, 2012. REUTERS/Gene Blevins

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Hundreds wait outside the flight line at 6:30am at Moffett Field for a chance to see space shuttle Endeavour fly over Moffett Field in Mountain View, Calif. on Friday, Sept. 21, 2012. The Endeavor is on the last leg of its final flight to Los Angeles where it will be permanently installed at the California Science Center. (Gary Reyes/ Staff)

Be patient, Bay Area: The historic flyover of the space shuttle Endeavour on Friday morning is now set for an hour later than originally planned, so be prepared to wait if you skip out of work or school to catch a glimpse.

The heavily anticipated show is now scheduled to reach the East Bay sometime after 9:30 a.m. before it soars over the Golden Gate Bridge, then turns south toward down the Peninsula over Moffett Field and heads to its new retirement home in a Los Angeles museum, NASA said. Still, even that’s ambitious: SFO officials say there is a “strong rumor” that the flight will be delayed about an hour more.

It is set to take off from Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California at 8:15 a.m., heading first to Sacramento and then the Bay Area.

The FAA and NASA are hoping that by starting the 4½-hour flight later than planned, the fog will be gone by the time the Endeavour reaches the Bay Area on the back of a 747 aircraft, at times dipping as low as 1,500 feet.

The National Weather Service is forecasting partly cloudy conditions at Moffett Field on Friday morning, and it could be even cloudier near the Golden Gate Bridge. It should be a typical late-summer day in terms of temperature. The flight was already delayed a day because of weather.

The shuttle took off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Wednesday and soared west to Houston, where it spent the night.

On Thursday, it made a loop over Tuscon, Ariz., to the delight of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her astronaut husband, Mark Kelly, who was also the ship’s last commander.

Friday’s flight is scheduled to finish with a flyover in Southern California at 11:30 a.m. before landing at Los Angeles International Airport at 12:45 p.m., when Endeavour will be taken off its carrier plane. Next month, it will be taken to its permanent home, the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

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